Chapter Eight
Nearly a week after she’d met Sebastian, Diana tilted her head back over the inner tube and gazed up at the multitude of stars blanketing the sable sky. The fingers of one of her hands skimmed the surface of the cool water while those of her other rested in Sebastian’s warm palm. The river shimmered, reflecting the sparkling lights above. Fireflies twinkled along the shore like faeries dancing in celebration of another hot summer night.
“Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight, wish I may, wish I might get the wish I wish tonight.”
“That’s three, goddess. I thought you could only wish on the first star you saw.” Sebastian hooked his leg with hers.
“I made an agreement with the man on the moon when I was thirteen,” she said, giggling. “He gives me two extra wishes for every, well, for every night I dance for him. I figure I have a few hundred wishes coming to me.”
“You’re blushing.”
“I am not,” she said, splashing some cool water on her burning cheeks.
“You’re definitely blushing. I can see it.”
Diana stared at his face, then frowned. “No you can’t. It’s too dark, even with the moonlight.”
Sebastian rolled over onto his stomach, then reached out and hooked his arm around her tube before it could float away. “So tell me about this dance. It must be pretty special to warrant a wish.”
“It’s just a dance.” She wondered how he’d react if he knew she danced naked for wishes. When she shrugged, he laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“I just thought of the kind of dance I’d grant wishes for.” He tugged on the edge of her tube, spinning her until her head was even with his. She hung her head back and stared up into eyes that never failed to entrance her.
“If I were the moon,” he said, rising up on his elbows, “I’d want you naked while you danced, then I could touch every inch of your skin and bathe you in my light.”
He cradled her head in his hands and leaned down. Brushing her lips with his as he spoke, he added, “And when the sun rose and sent me back into hiding, I’d suffer every second of the day, knowing its rays now caressed my goddess.”
Diana rose up and closed the minute gap between their mouths. No one had ever spoken to her like this. Like she was truly a goddess, an endearment he used in place of her name more and more often. Their lips met, tenderly embraced. The passion that coiled in her body whenever she so much as thought of him unfurled. She raised her arms, wrapped them around his neck and moaned until his lips parted and his tongue gave her what she craved. Over the past week, she’d grown addicted to his kisses and spent their time apart counting the minutes until he wrapped her in his arms and crushed her trembling lips with that miraculous mouth.
How could his kisses taste so sweet, gratify a need that bordered on pain? She nibbled at his lower lip, then moaned when he slid it into her mouth. When she sucked it in deeper, a rumble rose from his chest. Her heart pounded. Every muscle clenched. She suddenly heard the animals, birds and insects surrounding them, smelled the pine trees, wild flowers and earth along the bank rushing past as the current picked up speed and seemed to hurl them down river.
His hands left her face, skimmed down her neck, over her shoulders, then cupped her breasts in a way she could only describe as possessive. She thought she heard him saying her name, chanting it reverently, knew it had to be her imagination since his lips never left hers. Liquid heat slid between her nether lips, so hot she expected it to sizzle as it slid into the cool water.
Silently she begged, pleaded and implored him to rip off the bathing suit that had suddenly become too coarse against her sensitized skin and make love to her out here beneath the gaze of her beloved moon.
Sebastian wrenched free of her grasp, slid off his tube and disappeared below the water.
Diana cursed and clenched her fists. Still moving with the current, she waited for him to surface. As long seconds passed with no sign of him, her nails dug into her palms. “Sebastian!”
He shot up out of the water at least thirty feet away and let out a roar that sent the birds in the surrounding trees shooting into the sky. Although his roar and the sight of his black tee-shirt clinging to his chest enflamed her desire to the point where she too considered submerging into the river to extinguish the inferno engulfing her body, her stomach lurched. He sounded a little too much like a wild animal.
She watched him disappear beneath the surface and fought to contain the panic closing her throat. A second later, faster than anyone she knew could have swam such a distance, he shot out of the water a foot away from his tube.
“Will I ever see this dance,” he asked as he swiftly caught up with his tube.
Still unsettled from his roar and the speed of his return, she closed her eyes. “Maybe if you stay around long enough, I’ll show you.”
Sebastian settled back into the tube. “Oh, I’m not going anywhere.”
He sounded so sure. She wished she could feel the same way, should since her grandmother held no doubts that the man floating down the river beside her was indeed her soul mate. But ever since she discovered the truth about Luna and Colette, Diana found herself wondering about everyone she met. Especially those she only saw after the sun set.
She had yet to see Sebastian during the day. His excuses always made sense, but her doubts grew with each passing day. “I never knew they had midnight tubing. It’s amazing how many things you’ve introduced me to. Midnight horse trails, all night fairs. Restaurants that serve six course dinners in the wee hours of the morning.”
Holding her hand under the water, Sebastian tugged and brought her tube closer to his. “You just have to know where to go. Are you enjoying this?”
“I’m loving it.” Something soft bumped against her butt. “It’s a little scary, though, when you can’t see what’s under the water.” She rolled onto her stomach, rested her cheek on the tube, and glanced over her arm at Sebastian. He flung his head back, dunking his hair into the water, then turned. His eyes met hers.
She drew in a sharp breath at the desire burning in his gaze. He always wanted her. Never hid his desire.
Never went further than foreplay. She yelped when something slid under her stomach.
“You have nothing to fear, Diana. I’m here.”
He didn’t say it in a boastful way or like a man flexing his muscles; he said it as calmly as if he were commenting on the weather.
“You know, there’s bears up in them there hills,” she mumbled with an exaggerated twang, “and they’s mighty big.”
“Not big enough to get past me.” He rolled over, wrapped his arm across her back and brought her tube closer. “If you’re really scared, we could always bring our tubes to that pond at your house.”
Diana laughed at the lecherous look he cast her way. “Is this an elaborate plan to get me naked in the shower again?”
“I have a photographic memory,” he said, his voice growing deeper with every word. “I merely have to look at you to remember every detail of that night.”
Heat enveloped her wherever his burning gaze lit. She rolled onto her back, needing to feel it travel over her breasts, down her bare stomach to the spot where the river rose up to cool the fire in her pussy.
“Anyway, that bikini really doesn’t leave much to the imagination. You’re shivering. I told you to keep your clothes on.”
Diana humphed. “I’m shivering because I thought you drowned.”
Sebastian glanced at the scratch on her neck. He’d sipped her blood each night over the past week, only enough to satisfy his hunger during the daylight hours and relieve the throbbing that seemed to annoy her more and more. If he continued, she would notice that the scratch never fully healed. He reached out and brushed his knuckles over it. “You’ve been at this again. That twitch is still bothering you?”
“It’s not so bad. Well, most of the time.”
He wondered how long it would take before she noticed that his presence aggravated her twitch until his mouth gently sucking on the open sore appeased her body’s need to merge completely with his. No one had ever tampered with the timing of the bonding ritual. He and Diana were only a week into the first stage…one night merging their bodies and blood followed by a month of denial. He needed three more weeks.
As soon as he’d discovered that Diana was his soul mate, he’d gone to Tobias, requested and received approval to pass minor amounts of blood to appease her. Luckily, for him, his elder had a knack for being vague. Sebastian found a loophole and used it to rationalize sating his own hunger. Tobias, more likely than not, meant feeding the hunger that could destroy Diana’s mind and body. While the pulsing vein in her neck annoyed her, it wouldn’t harm her body or mind.
But Tobias had only said to appease her and sucking on her neck certainly seemed to do just that.
Sebastian! His mother’s enraged voice sliced through his thoughts.
Ignoring her, he pulled Diana’s tube closer, lifted her out and, dragging her under the water, drowned himself in her kiss. His mother could wait. There were too many hours left to enjoy with Diana before dawn broke over the mountains. When he felt her hands slip into his pants and cup him, he decided he’d spend every second of every night with this goddess before giving her up to the damned sun.
As the weeks passed, his mother’s voice summoning him became more and more insistent and rattled his thoughts.
* * * * *
“I’ve been calling you for weeks. How dare you ignore me? I can’t believe I had to resort to using this human gadget to speak to my own son.”
Sebastian gripped the phone. “You know I’ve been busy. I have to watch Diana constantly during the night hours, just in case she’s helping her father.”
“You’ve been out with that slut every night for a month and you still haven’t decided what to do?”
Sebastian winced and held the phone away from his ear. The distance prevented Olympia’s angry voice from piercing his ears, but did not stop her rage from slamming into his head. “I’m supposed to find Nostrum’s weapon, aren’t I?” he coolly asked.
“Yes, but you were only given a week. Let me send Diego. He’s itching to get his hands on her.”
“Send him and I’ll return him to you with a broken neck. I have the elders’ approval to take as long as I need, Mother. If you go behind my back or do anything to hinder me from uncovering more information, I swear I will personally bring you before the elders for usurping their orders.”
He strode into his kitchen and glanced out the window. Tonight Diana had plans that didn’t include him, plans she’d refused to discuss. Jealousy had kept him awake all day. By the time the sun’s last ray shining over the mountain ridge above his home had blinked out, he was already dressed and heading out the door. The thought of someone else kissing her lips, touching her body enraged him.
But what he couldn’t handle, what nearly sent him over the edge was imagining someone else feeling her body quiver as she laughed at his jokes, someone else listening to her wish upon a star or speak to the moon as if it were her dearest friend, someone else wiping the tears she shed from some scene in a movie.
Someone else watching her eyes darken with desire.
The emptiness and despair that overwhelmed him when he so much as thought of never again sharing those times with her shook him. The moment the UV sensors on his roof had chimed, he’d bolted out his door, slamming it so hard behind him the hinges had cracked. The sound of the phone ringing and the possibility that she’d changed her mind had sent him running back into the house like some lovesick fool.
When he’d heard his mother’s voice, a new, more terrifying fear took root. Without him, Diana would be helpless against Olympia or any vampire she sent her way. All month Diana had survived accidents that could have turned deadly. “One more attempt on her life, Mother, and you’ll have to face me.”
“Now, Sebastian,” his mother said, her voice taking on the tone of a doting parent, “you know I would never do that.”
He went to the front door, opened it and stared out into the darkness, probing for some clue of Diana’s whereabouts.
“You have to watch out for that witch, Sebastian. Mark my words, she’s the weapon! You’re all the proof I need.”
His mother’s voice drew him away just as he imagined he caught Diana’s scent on a breeze. He frowned at how strong it seemed, as if she were just over the ridge separating his home from Marek’s.
“Me? What the hell are you talking about?” He raked his hand through his hair. He had to get off this phone. It no longer mattered where Diana had gone tonight, he had to find her. He hadn’t tasted her blood the last few nights, his guilt over manipulating Tobias’ words getting the best of him.
His hunger drove him mad. Nothing soothed it except Diana kissing him, Diana wrapping him in her warmth, Diana relieving some of the pressure by feeding off the gash he opened in his mouth just before bringing it down to meet hers.
Just last night, he’d even chanced leaving before dusk to find her. Luckily, the sun’s rays were too weak to do any harm. Drawing in a deep breath, he shook his head. Could she be so close? It didn’t matter. Wherever she was, he’d soon find her. Nothing mattered but seeing her, feeling her. “I’m fine.”
“Are you? Are you sure you’re not delaying the punishment because she’s worked her wicked spells on you? Are you sure she doesn’t already have you so twisted that you’ll follow her anywhere?”
Sebastian’s heart stilled. Anywhere?
His nostrils flared as another gentler breeze surrounded him with her scent.
“Sebastian!”
Sebastian clenched his hand until the phone shattered. Slamming the door behind him, he set out to follow that scent anywhere it led until he found his mate.
“Are the torches for me,” Diana asked Colette as she picked up the salad bowl from the picnic table.
Colette stopped clearing the table and gazed at the torches encircling the yard. Her eyes shone. “I always light them. Marek bought them. He bought the tree lights too.”
Diana gazed at the multitude of tiny white lights sparkling in the Weeping Cherry trees lining a wide path to the lake. “They’re beautiful. Did Marek have a problem with his night vision?”
“Night vision?” Colette shot a worried look across the yard at her daughter.
Luna skimmed her feet along the ground, abruptly halting her swing, and stared intently into her mother’s eyes. After a moment she shook her head. Another moment passed. Luna brought her finger up to her chest and drew an X.
Watching the scene between mother and child, Diana wondered if they somehow spoke to each other.
Colette turned her attention back to clearing the table, her brows furrowed, her hands shaking.
It had taken a month of weekly lessons for Diana to convince Colette that she meant them no harm, that she would never reveal their secret. Each week, Colette had peered into the shadows and gripped the gate surrounding the corral. By the end of the lesson her knuckles would be white and a glistening sheen of sweat coated her skin.
Last night her fear had escalated when a group of ranch hands suddenly emerged from the saloon and started to run toward the corral, yelling. “We got two live ones!” “Whoa, Diana, don’t let em go before we rope em in!”
Diana knew exactly what they were talking about, had even begun to laugh, but Colette’s strangled cry cut her laughter short. “It’s all right, Colette, calm down. They’re only talking about tomorrow’s charity fair.” Fangs had slipped out between Colette’s lips. Diana, praying the men were too far to notice, hissed, “Colette, please!”
She’d passed Luna over the gate to her mother, then spun around and smiled brightly at the approaching men. “Hi, guys.”
“Don’t you let them go, Di. We gotta get them to buy some of these tickets.” Jacob, the oldest hand on the ranch, waved a book of raffle tickets in the air. “Wouldn’t want the tot to miss all the fun tomorrow.”
“I already bought some for them.” She glanced over her shoulder. “But I don’t think Luna’s going to be able to make it. I was just ending her lesson early because she feels like she has a fever.”
Jacob leaned to the side and peered around Diana. “She don’t look sick.”
Diana cringed. The stench of rotten teeth and stale alcohol sent bile rising up her throat. “I’d step back, Jacob. Luna just said she felt nauseous.”
Jacob leapt back a step. “Well git her outta here! I don’t want her vomitin all over the place!”
Luna screamed.
Diana spun around. Her eyes flew open in shock. A bee had managed to entangle itself in a lock of Luna’s hair. Without a moment’s hesitation, Diana lifted the hair away from Luna’s chest and plucked the bee out.
Accepting the ensuing invitation hadn’t been easy. She couldn’t bear the thought of missing one moment with Sebastian, much less one night. And just the previous night she’d started an argument, demanding he find some time during the day for her.
She needed that more than he knew. A few hours during the day. A few hours in the sun.
Sebastian hadn’t taken the news that she had plans which didn’t include him very well. And when she refused to tell him where she intended to spend their first night apart, he’d stalked off, cutting the night short.
And now, with one stupid question about Marek’s night vision, she’d blown a perfect night. She followed Colette’s rigid back into the kitchen.
She put the salad bowl in the sink, aware that Colette stood beside the table, a stack of dirty dishes still in her hands.
“How do you know about our night vision?”
“Doesn’t everyone?” Diana pumped dish detergent onto a sponge.
“No, Diana. Most people don’t know we exist. Most people would never believe in us even if a little girl showed them her fangs. Most people would figure she had fake ones and laugh it off. But you didn’t. You knew they were real. Because you’re not like most people, are you?”
“You bared your fangs, Colette. Remember?” Diana straightened from the hard edge of anger in Colette’s voice. She couldn’t bring herself to turn around.
Colette slammed the pile of dishes on the counter. “I’m talking about your father.”
Diana gripped the edge of the counter. “My father? What do you know about my father?” Her voice cracked.
Colette leaned over and turned off the water with one fervent twist of the handles. “The question, Diana, is what do you know about your father and his pen? Where is it? Where are my husband’s ashes?”
Diana slowly turned. She stared at Colette. Even though her tears blurred the woman’s face, she saw the return of the mistrust, the fear. “I…” She blinked, felt her tears spill onto her cheeks, watched Colette’s crimson ones spill onto hers. Diana swallowed the false denial. “I’m so sorry, Colette. I never believed it. How could I? He’s my father!”
She took a tentative step forward.
Colette, a feared creature of the night, someone who could probably rip her to shreds without breaking a sweat, scurried back and swung a chair between them.
“Don’t come any closer!”
Diana watched her scan the shadows of the room as if she expected someone to suddenly appear. “Oh, God, Colette, you can’t think I’d—”
The screen door swung open.
“Wanna see my dolls, Di—”
“No!” Colette lunged toward Luna, knocking Diana across the room as if she were nothing more than a pesky fly. She grabbed Luna, spun her around and shoved her towards the door. “Run, Luna!”
Diana slumped against the wall, the pain in the back of her head nothing compared to the knife twisting in her heart. “My mother lied to me. She lied to me, then left me with him.”
She stared blindly at her lap and let loose the grief she’d contained since she’d first discovered her father’s insane tales were true and her mother’s promises were false. And what of Sebastian? Why would he only see her at night? Was he a vampire? Probably not. Which meant she could never trust him with her knowledge of Colette and Luna. She lifted her eyes.
Her heart felt like it cracked. Colette cradled Luna against her side, protecting her. As a mother would. As her mother should have.
“I believed my mother. Even when I was old enough to know that my father was too normal to have delusions. I kept telling myself that my mother would never lie to me. But she did, didn’t she? She even lied when she told me she loved me. My God, she left me, a little girl, with a man who killed vampires. A man who left me alone every night to hunt them!”
Diana angrily swiped away her tears. “You wouldn’t do that, Colette. You’d protect Luna. You’d worry that the creatures your husband sought might go after your daughter for revenge.”
When Luna moved to step away from her mother and toward Diana, Colette tightened her hold. “So you had nothing to do with Marek’s death?”
“Oh, God, no. I liked Marek. He was always so kind. If I had any idea what my father planned, if I believed his tales, I would have done something to stop him. You have to believe me.” She watched Luna clutch the locket she’d given her and recalled what her mother had said when she’d given it to her. She’d told her the locket would keep the monsters away then had added, “Not that you’ll need it. The monsters are more afraid of your father than you could ever be of them. They wouldn’t dare touch Frank Nostrum’s little girl.”
She had raised fearful eyes to her mother and asked, “So there really are monsters, Mommy?”
Her mother had leaned over and kissed her. Diana remembered wondering why her mother was crying. “Sometimes people like your father can only see monsters because they can’t get past the legends and the fangs, Diana. Sometimes the monsters are no different from you or me.”
“Oh my God, she knew.” Diana shook her head at Colette and Luna. “She wasn’t telling me vampires didn’t exist. She was telling me they weren’t monsters. But I couldn’t believe that. I never wanted to believe it, because if I did, then I had to accept that my father was no better than a murderer. H-he killed s-so many. I heard about every one. Even poor, sweet Marek. I’d just pat him on the back and tell him he was doing a great job. Oh God, it’s all my fault, isn’t it. If I’d done something to stop him, Marek—”
She clapped her hand over her mouth. Her stifled scream filled the kitchen. When she felt Luna’s tiny hands grasp her cheeks, her scream evolved into a wail she couldn’t seem to control.
Until the screen door once again flew open and slammed against the wall. Diana drew in a sharp breath.
Sebastian stood in the doorway, his eyes darting back and forth, his hands clenched around a gun.
Diana jumped up and, after pushing Luna back into her mother’s arms, stood in front of them. “What are you doing here?” Her voice shook.
She cared for Sebastian more than any man she’d ever known, felt in her heart that they were soul mates, but couldn’t live with the death of another vampire on her conscience. Colette and Luna, caught up in the escalating emotions of the evening, had twice revealed their fangs. “You can’t just barge into someone’s house swinging a gun around!”
“What?” Sebastian raked a hand through his hair. “I’m a goddamned Champion! I hear a scream, I barge in. It’s my damn job!”
The three females flinched when he slammed the door shut, his eyes still scanning the room.
“A Champion? What the hell is a Champion?” Diana narrowed her eyes and put her hands on her hips. “Why are you here?”
“I just told you, I heard a scream.”
“No. Why are you even close enough to hear anything that’s going on in this house?” She swiped at a wisp of hair that clung to her wet cheek. “Are you following me?”
“What?” Sebastian took a step closer.
Diana puffed out her chest and reached behind her to gather Colette and Luna behind her back. “I told you I had plans tonight.” Her voice shook with anger. “You’re not one of those overbearing jealous nuts who follows his girlfriends around, are you?”
“Nut? Did you just call me a nut?” He shoved the gun in the back of his jeans.
Diana crossed her arms over her chest. “If you’re following me, then, yes, I’m calling you a nut!”
“I am not the one screaming my head off as if someone’s killing me for,” he bellowed, waving his hands around the kitchen, “no apparent reason!”
“You’re avoiding the question, wise guy. What are you even doing here?”
“I live nearby. Since I had no plans tonight,” he said, raising one eyebrow, “I figured I’d take a walk along the lake. Now will you please tell me what the hell happened?” Sebastian traced a finger down her wet cheek, then reached over and tucked a stray curl behind her ear. “You’ve obviously been crying and that wasn’t some randy raccoon I heard screaming.”
His voice, filled with concern, and the touch of his fingers gliding down her cheek nearly undid her. Nearly. She longed to throw herself into his arms and pour her heart out, but doubted Sebastian would believe her father hunted vampires. And what if she told him the woman and little girl cowering behind her were real night creatures, that she would do anything to protect them? That she was screaming because her failure to stop her father had led to the death of a vampire she’d considered a gentle giant?
Oh, yeah. Sebastian would understand. He’d understand as he called the men in white to come and take her away.
Of course, she had to consider the possibility that he might believe her. Then what? Would he call her father and enlist his aid in capturing Colette and Luna? Knowing the Sebastian she’d grown to care about, she doubted it, but she couldn’t take the chance.
“Well?” He leaned to the side, then scowled when she shifted to block his view of Colette and Luna.
“I saw a, um, mouse.”
Sebastian’s brows drew together. “You saw a mouse? Diana, you work at a ranch. You must see them all the time.”
She flung her hands behind her back, held one of her fingers out and mumbled. “It bit me.”
“You screamed like that because a little mouse bit you?”
“It hurt!”
“Really? I’d better take a look at it then.” His eyes narrowed.
She frantically wriggled her index finger, hoping Luna would see it and know what to do. “I’m fine.”
“Let me see it, Diana. That is, if there is anything to see.” He leaned his hip against the counter and crossed his arms.
“Are you calling me a liar? I’m telling you a mouse bit my finger.” She felt Luna grasp her finger and gritted her teeth. The pain, though piercing enough to bring tears to her eyes, didn’t last long. She brought her hand out and waved her finger in front of his face. “See?”
Sebastian’s pupils dilated. “You expect me to believe a mouse did this?”
Colette stepped out from behind Diana and looked at her finger. “Luna, go to your room!”
“But, Mommy!”
“It’s really not that bad.” Diana turned her bloody finger around.
“Not a word, young lady. To your room, now.”
The gash across the pad of her finger spewed blood. Luna’s fang had gone completely through, piercing the nail. Diana mutely watched as Sebastian cursed and brought her finger to his mouth. Her stomach flipped as he licked both sides before grabbing a dishtowel draped over a chair and wrapping it around her hand. His tongue darted out and licked her blood from his lips.
“Lu—” Colette looked at Diana, Sebastian, then back at Diana.
Then back at Sebastian.
Just as she had when Luna and her mother had stared into each other’s eyes outside, Diana noted subtle changes in Colette and Sebastian’s expressions. As if they were having a discussion. A private, silent conversation. Her heart sank. Her eyes burned.
As they continued to ignore her, she searched for some way out, some way to avoid meeting his eyes.
“Diana, are you all right? You look so pale?” Colette’s soft voice met her ears just as Diana’s vision cleared enough to make out the names scrawled beneath a childish drawing on the refrigerator of two, tall stick figures.
“Diana?” Sebastian took hold of her hand.
Tearing her eyes away from the drawing, Diana forced herself to look at the man who filled her every thought, every dream.
“Must have been a big mouse,” she mumbled, wondering how wise it was to bleed so close to vampires. Her eyes widened when her blood seeped through the towel and started to drip onto the floor. “I don’t feel so good.”
Scooping Diana up into his arms just as her legs gave out, Sebastian watched her eyes flutter, then close. “Why was she lying to me, Colette?”
Colette shook her head. “I think she was protecting us.”
“From who?”
Colette simply stared at him.
“Me?” He shifted Diana so that her head rested on his shoulder. The vein in his neck nearly burst free from the skin separating it from her lips. Diana groaned. He carried her into the living room and laid her down on the couch. “That’s ridiculous. Why would she think I’d hurt you or Luna?”
Colette lowered her eyes. “Because she knows.”
Ice-cold fingers wrapped around his heart. “So, she was protecting you from me.” Although the idea that Diana thought he would sink his teeth into a helpless woman and child made him sick, he had to admire her bravery. He gazed down. She looked so pale. So frail. “Faints at the sight of blood, yet she stands up to a vampire to protect her friends.”
Colette began to nod, then jerked her head up. She swatted his slumped shoulders. “You big oaf. As far as Diana was concerned, she was only standing up to a man.”
“But you just said she knows.”
“About me and Luna. Not you.”
Sebastian felt the fingers around his heart release their grip, slip away. “That’s why she screamed? She realized you were vampires?”
“No, no. She’s known about us for a while.”
“Before Marek?” The fingers returned, this time squeezing so hard he thought his heart would stop beating. “Then Olympia was right. She must have led her father to him.”
“She found out after Marek died. Open your eyes, Sebastian. She made it quite obvious tonight that she would never help her father.”
He longed to believe that, but the safety of his niece and sister-in-law weighed heavy on his shoulders. “You shouldn’t have invited her here. What if you’re wrong? What if this was all an elaborate act?”
“We trust her.” Colette brought her chin up. “As a matter of fact, we’re all going into town to watch the fireworks.” She glanced down. “Well, as soon as she comes to.”
Sebastian examined Diana’s finger. His blood already mingling with hers and his saliva had worked its magic. The gaping wound had already sealed into a mere scratch.
Over the past three weeks his hunger had gnawed at him, weakening his willpower more each day until he thought he’d go mad. Blood surged through his veins, pooled in his eyes. Seeing Diana through a red haze terrified him. His fangs shot out. His nostrils flared. The smell of her blood permeated the room. He closed his eyes, clenched his fists, flung his head back and roared until his fangs receded with his hunger.
Drawing in a shaky breath, he glared at Colette’s shocked face. “First we’re going to get this covered and wake Diana. Then I’ll go with you into town, just in case you’re wrong.”
“You still don’t trust her. What does she have to do?”
“More than what could have been a very good act.”
“Men are such fools.” Colette shook her head as she went to get a bandage. When she returned, she handed it to him and rumpled his head. “Well, not Marek. He trusted me the moment we met.”
“Marek trusted everyone, Colette. That’s the problem.” He wrapped the bandage around Diana’s finger.
“What was with the gun, Sebastian?”
“I wasn’t sure what the hell was going on in here. I felt her distress before I heard her scream and, well, I couldn’t come in baring my fangs.”
“I thought she was going to wrestle it out of your hand,” Colette said, softly laughing. “When she accused you of stalking her, I thought I’d die.”
“The little spitfire called me a nut.” He ran his finger over Diana’s lower lip. “I think I’m in big trouble here, Colette.”
“Can I still go see the fireworks?”
Colette and Sebastian turned. Luna peered out from the hall leading to her room. She glanced at Diana’s body. Her chin scrunched up. “Did I kill Diana?”
“What?” Sebastian frowned.
Luna ran across the room. She wrapped her arms around her mother’s waist. “It wasn’t my fault. She pulled her hand away before I let go.”
“You bit her?” Sebastian’s eyes narrowed. “What the hell is going on? Will someone tell me why she screamed?”
“No.” Colette lifted her chin. “If Diana wants you to know, she’ll tell you.”
“Luna, you’ll tell Uncle Sebastian why Diana was crying, won’t you?”
Luna glanced up at her mother, then looked at him and shook her head.
He stalked them across the room, taking one long step forward for every two they took backwards.
Colette bared her fangs when they bumped against the wall. “Back off, Sebastian. You’re scaring Luna.”
He gritted his teeth. “I will when you explain to me why my niece bit Diana.”
“She told me to!” Luna held up her finger and wiggled it. “She wiggled her finger in front of my mouth right after she said a mouse bit her.”
Diana moaned. Sebastian leaned down and whispered into Luna’s ear. “You’ll tell me why Diana screamed, won’t you, Luna Moona.”
“No.” When he continued to stare into her eyes, Luna gasped. “Stop it. Daddy said it’s really, really rude to sneak a peek into someone’s head.”
“Sebastian, you didn’t!” Colette lifted Luna into her arms. “I can’t believe this is you.”
“Well what do you expect, Colette? I have to protect you and Luna. I—”
“And Diana,” Luna said, twisting around in her mother’s arms. She pointed a finger at him and wagged it in front of his face. “You have to protect her for me, Uncle Sebastian.”
Sebastian hooked Luna’s chin. “I do?”
“She gave me the locket her mommy gave her. It protected her from monsters, but she gave it to me. Then I got scared ‘cause now she has nothing to keep her safe. So I’m giving her you.”
“Me?”
“Grandpa said I could. He said you would take care of her for me. He pinky promised!”
Sebastian cleared his throat. “Grandpa Tobias?”
When Luna nodded, he lifted the locket.
How many times had he seen Diana reach for something on her chest, seen her sigh when her hand came away empty? He slid his nail into the side of the heart and opened it. The tiny picture of a young woman kissing the cheek of a baby sent a lump to his throat.
“Still don’t trust her, Sebastian? She gave that to Luna the day she found out what we were,” Colette whispered. “That very day. I bet that was her most precious possession.”
He snapped the two sides of the heart back together, felt it slide through his fingers. Luna’s small hand wrapped around it, clutching it as he imagined Diana had a thousand times since her mother had given it to her. “Don’t worry, Luna. I won’t let anything happen to Diana.”
“Promise, Uncle Sebastian? Cross your heart and hope to fry?”
“Cross my heart and hope to fry. And no calling me Uncle tonight.” After Luna nodded solemnly, Sebastian returned to the couch.
“Diana.” He leaned over and brushed his lips over hers. His heart swelled. “Come on, goddess, open your eyes.”
He never expected her to bolt upright just as he leaned down to once again whisper in her ear.